Posts Tagged ‘skiing’

mappery has partnered with Skimap.org to bring over 1,000 ski trail maps from the past and present into the mappery collection. This enormous group of high-quality maps includes both downhill and nordic ski areas from around the world and features a wide variety of artistic styles.

This incredible map collection highlights the fascinating blend of cartography and marketing found in ski maps. Each map must not only serve as a detailed guide but also as an attractive de-facto brochure to lure visitors. The best ski trail maps fulfill these dual roles exquisitely and pervade the consciousness of everyone who views them. As a ski area changes over time, the often annually-updated trail map assumes a third role of historical document, showing growth, different art styles, and even changing trends in skiing like improved glade areas, backcountry access gates, and the rise of the jump parks.

It may still be a bit early to think about the upcoming ski season (except of course in places like New Zealand where things are in full swing), but with this many ski trail maps now easily browsable on mappery, you’d better start exploring them now so when the snow does start falling you’ll know exactly where to go.

Just as the height of the US ski season nears, you can now find high-quality ski trail maps of almost any western US ski area on mappery. The Rocky Mountain states (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) and Western states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington) now have full coverage. Once again, I’m amazed at the staggering number of James Niehues maps, always a pleasure to look at.

With the ski season just around the corner, it’s time to scope out new ski destinations and check out the latest expansions at ski areas around the country.A great way to do this is to use mappery to browse through the latest trail maps.

mappery also includes other major ski resorts throughout the US and Canada; look for more coverage soon.If you notice that mappery’s missing one of your favorite ski resorts, please add the latest map.As an added bonus, mappery will send you 1 free lift ticket to that resort if you do (no guarantees).

Look at these maps in the Map View and you can clearly see how Vermont ski areas follow the line of the Green Mountains extending up the center of Vermont. Check out the Gallery View to get a sense of all Vermont ski areas at the same time.

It’s also interesting to see the trend of smaller ski areas becoming private ski clubs, like Haystack. I’m not sure how much membership costs, but the uncrowded skiing offered by these clubs does sound appealing after dealing with the overflowing slopes of Stratton.